Chapter 17

I didn't like him, not the way I felt unfavorable towards Pek or Nek. I didn't like him in the thoroughly civilized way one man can dislike another, which has nothing to do with being civilized and everything do with civilization saying we shouldn't kill each other.

Strike One: Freshly bathed. The women of the Anue liked bathing. I liked the women of the Anue getting all bathy and certainly appreciated their cleanliness. This guy was shiny, pink-skin clean, like he'd just showered the scum of a long field exercise off.

Strike Two: As clean as he was, his hair was straggly; taller than me, not built on military terms, instead rail-thin with delicate and pretty features. His eyes passed over us wildly before settling on Els and Ema.

Strike Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven: Greek-styled body armor, a round shield, arm guards, greaves, and a sword about a foot longer than either of mine.

He stepped into the clearing. The man vibrated nervous energy; even from a distance his aura affected my stability.

"I'd appreciate if you didn't take another step forward, friend," I said loudly. His focused on me. Bad! Bad! He'd been too busy with Els and Ema to take serious note of me. His eyes narrowed at the sword hilts at my shoulders.

"You're like me," he said with no surprise. I doubt we're like each other, friend.

"I'm looking for the Ape Others," he announced. He took the step forward and several more. "They killed my tribe."

The people around me relaxed. I didn't--something about him. More than being a foreigner to the Land of The Anue Women.

"My name is Robert," he told the tribe before meeting my eyes again. "Robert Angel."

"Miguel Achilles Jones."

"Miguel?" He smiled as he tested the name. His eyes drifted back to Els and Ema.

It would be unfair to say everyone in the tribe disliked Robert. Only Els and Ema avoided him. Caryn ignored him, but she was ignoring everyone. Priestess No Comment leaned against the cave entrance, staring up at the sky as if waiting for her Moon Goddess to rise so they could commune.

Naris found the fellow fascinating. She instructed the tribe women to prepare a feast for our visitor, before sitting him down in the center of the cave to engage him in an interrogation. Not crippled by the belief in my divinity, Naris came to the conclusion Robert and I must be from similar tribes. To her disappointment, Robert proved as eager as me to answer questions. A chill crawled up my spine; he only answered Naris's questions when I attempted to start a conversation with him.

I didn't want too many of Naris's questions answered. Hate to think what she could do if she found out about dynamite. On the other hand, why would Mr. Angel keep me at a distance? I moved away from him. He froze, relieved, before unsubtly snubbing Naris to study the other women. He marked them as if making sure there were no more Ema or Els's. He continued the minute study of his two favorites. It didn't take long for Naris to get frustrated by his reticence. Robert Angel seemed unaware or uncaring about the tribe power structure and Naris's standing in it. An annoyed Naris put the rest of the tribe on edge.

"What happened with your tribe and the ape-men?" I asked directly. I don't like when people wince at direct questions, bunghole! It makes me think they have something to hide. I could give you the benefit of the doubt that you're still hurting from your tribe being killed, but...

"I was hunting," he replied. "We were smaller than this tribe: a few women, children, and myself. One of the women was pregnant--almost due. We needed meat, but the women wanted to stay with the pregnant girl. I. Hmm. I left. We needed meat!"

I nodded.

"I should have known something was wrong from how far I had to range to get a kill." He did not meet anyone's eyes as he spoke. "It's so easy around here."

He wasn't carrying any shafts, but I could see a few lance heads in sliding pockets on his armor.

"I'd never seen anything like it. The blood was everywhere!" Naris put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. He smiled shyly, the pain obvious in his eyes and the way he fisted his hands. "They had a lead. I didn't know how much so I couldn't take time to bury anyone. I needed to get them. Kill them!"

"How did you know they were Ape-Others?" Caryn asked from behind him. Robert turned to look at her, but she'd faded into the shadows.

"How did you know they were Ape-Others?" Her voice seemed to be coming from all around us. Shortie could play Priestess to a capital T. Our visitor tensed as Caryn's act got the better of him. Good luck dude! The babes have been fucking with my head since day one. If I didn't get to stick my dick in them any time I wanted, I would have strangled one or two of them by now.

"I tracked them to other tribes they attacked," he said. "The last tribe killed one and wounded a couple of others."

"You can track them?" I leaned forward.

"Not really," he said. "I try, but they disappear every once in a while."

I saw that for myself. The monkeys used the stream like a highway to get to the Anue cave, but I couldn't find the on-ramp. I hadn't found any traces of a scout that would have marked our cave as a target either. For all purposes, they might as well have appeared in the water with a target in mind.

"How did you find them then?" Naris asked.

"I follow them whenever I can find signs of their passing. Dead people mostly. When they disappear, I do a search grid. I've been lucky; they're traveling in a straight line."

"How many other attacks?" I asked.

"Five, maybe six. You're the first tribe they've hit since they lost one of their own."

"If that's true, they won't attack again, Achilles," Naris said. "We sent more than one to Earth-Mother."

"Yeah!" Robert said quickly.

"I don't think we got them all," I told him. We killed our attackers, but the part of my brain, which helped me survive in war, was whispering about a probing force.

"You hurt them bad!" he replied. "It could make it impossible to find them again."

"What are you going to do now?" Naris asked Robert. I didn't like way she put her hand on his knee.

"I'll spend the night if that's okay," he said. "If Achilles is right, you may have convinced them to go back where they came from. Tomorrow, I'll go in the direction they were heading. If I don't find them, I'll double back towards the previous attack sites."

"They've got to be stopped!" Robert finally met my eyes. "They're the worst things out here. They've got to be stopped!"

"The monkey-boys aren't the worst." My words surprised him.

He looked angry for a second before responding, "What do you mean they're not the worst? Of course, they are!"

"No," Naris said, taking her hand off him. That's right-- mine! And don't you forget it!

"The Redbeards are the worst Others," Reia said.

"What's so bad about them?" Robert's words challenged us.

"Cannibals," I said.

He didn't blink, which set my teeth on edge. The normal reaction to cannibalism is visceral. Robert flat lined, folding in on himself to cut us off. Naris made a few attempts to draw him into conversation throughout the night, but he was unreachable.

Robert had too many strikes against him for Caryn and him to be adding more. He made his intention not to let me get him alone obvious. Caryn acted like a freak. Granted, Caryn always spoke and acted like a religious freak, which made her freakier than a standard run-of-the-mill freak. Something about Robert made Caryn go for new world records in freak-hood. Scary-freaky Shortie spent the entire night kneeling and facing the wall at the back of my sleeping platform. Setting flat-faced rocks around her, she placed burning embers on them to create a barrier of smoke between the tribe and her attempt to become one with the Gods.

"I don't need this shit!" I whispered. Trying to watch Robert out of one eye and keep the other on Priestess Fucking Crazy to make sure she didn't start beating her head against the wall in religious fervor sorely taxed my patience.

If Robert knew the rules, I would not be able to stop him from fucking Ema. The cannibal reaction put me firmly in the camp of not wanting him to touch an Anue female. He didn't wet his lips or anything, though I would have preferred he puked into his mouth or something. I don't know if he sensed the hostility or was still hurting from the loss of his tribe, but he chose to sleep outside the cave. I didn't have to say anything to Gamen and Winik, who moved their sleeping furs to the entrance of the cave. Hey guys, do that gay thing you do. Maybe this guy is gayphobe and a little two-man ass action will make him go looking for straighter pastures. Gay rights! Gay rights!

Having Robert outside relaxed me enough to take some of my frustration out on Els's cute, little blonde pussy. Personally, I thought her moans where a nice counterpoint to Caryn's chanting. Shortie didn't stop the whole fucking night! It got to the point that Naris might have said something or tried to put a stop to the Anue Priestess' attack of insanity. Taking Leader's right with Naris headed off the confrontation. I had to fuck her unconscious, which was a small price to pay to not have two of the A-Three at each other's throat with a modern day visitor in our midst.

After putting Naris to sleep, I decided Robert would have to answer some questions the next morning. It was a little circular to ask a possible hallucination to prove you're not hallucinating him, but what-fucking-ever. I might even be able to hallucinate him away.

As soon as I woke up, Winik reported Robert had not slept. From the looks of our visitor, I would have guessed he lost three or four nights of sleep.

"No morning ritual," I said softly.

The women made noises. A couple of faces flashed disappointment. Caryn stepped to my side and stared the women down. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. Normally, Naris or Els would make the Anue women toe the line: Naris with a club and Els kind words. Caryn radiated authority.

Having someone best described as sketchy at breakfast is sure to ruin most people's appetite. I was certainly a member of the 'most people' group. I hate stank! I hate stanky men! Robert stank. This fuck stank worse than cave-stanky-men. How the fuck does a man gather that much stank in one night?!? The cockwad must have stank glands! Probably due to my policy that men would not wait for rainfall to have water beat them liberally, even the Anue males winced if Robert got too close to them. Dude, cave men think you're a member of the stank family! Naris actually froze a few feet from Robert and blanched. I coughed to cover up a laugh--Naris's curiosity beaten by stank!

Caryn's moment of lucidity seemed to be over. She was back to leaning against the cave entrance and whispering to herself. Els walked over to our Priestess. They talked for a few minutes; actually, Caryn talked, Els did a lot of nodding.

Say it with me, 'Oh, shit!'"

The mated women served breakfast to their mates while the unmated women took care of the other men. The women knew better than to approach me. The A-Three would decapitate any female who did anything for me without one of those three assigning the privilege.

Els intercepted Ema when she grimaced, squared her shoulders, and moved towards our visitor with food. Ema couldn't have been happier to give over the odorous duty. Els's action put me on alert. Robert's presence must have distracted me. Why was Caryn wearing her Priestess's duds? Naris watched Caryn and Els like a hawk on target. Whatever those two were up to, they hadn't told Naris. Els shifted the wooden plate (I made Caryn build me a wooden square I could eat from, which the tribe adopted the use of immediately.), balanced the food on it better, and knelt. Caryn's steps were steeped in ceremony. She said a few words over the food and took the plate from Els. The saber-tooth wands! Shortie always had them nearby and fuck if she would dream of being dressed formally without them. Where are your pretty daggers, Shortie?

I stood up when one of Caryn's hands moved under the plate. Els spun around, almost falling out of her top. Robert's eyes wandered to the bounty of breasts.

I moved, "Caryn..."

It was too late. Robert must have gotten a twinge of warning, but my motion misdirected him. He stood and tried to get around Caryn to face me. Caryn struck, driving a saber-tooth dagger into Robert's forearm.

"YOU FUCKING CUNT!" His backhand would have killed Caryn. I had gotten more warning than him. Close enough! I grabbed the back of Caryn's outfit and yanked. I read the scene right; Priestess Shortie needed her ass pulled out of the fire. "YOUR FUCKING BITCH STABBED ME, ASSHOLE!"

Caryn flew backwards. I was so used to Dru I didn't look for her anymore. She would be there. Caryn's flight ended in Dru's arms.

Robert pulled the tooth out and stared hatred at Caryn. A couple of things registered at the same time. As much as Robert's eyes spit venom at the Anue Priestess, there was something in their depth. Fear. Real Fear! Robert's wound was closing. Healing! Comic book Healing! Fucking Movie Magic Healing!

The sword hilt appeared in my hand. Els. Naris must have caught on. The other sword slapped into place. I met Robert's eyes. He was close to panicking. He broke the gaze to stare at the wound. Horror and disgust crossed his face. He hated it! Hated it more passionately than he hated Caryn at the moment. And the pain. My God, he hated the pain too! Feared it. That last was from the way he looked at me--begging me to do something about the pain.

We stood facing each other until there was no trace of Caryn's handiwork on his arm.

"Your bitch stabbed me!"

"She slipped," I replied.

And that was that.

"What was she thinking?" I asked Naris as we watched Robert walk across the plateau. He changed his mind about following the monkey-men's original direction. In the brief conversation we had after I would not acknowledge Caryn stuck her dagger in him on purpose, he said something about the Anue having done too much damage for the apes to continue hunting humans. I didn't give a shit; I wanted him gone.

"She..." Naris shrugged.

"She knew he would heal like that," I said.

Naris shrugged again.

"How does she explain it?" I got the feeling God or not, Caryn wasn't going to talk to me about it. If I forced her to, she'd probably pull out the Moon and holy mission crap.

"He is the son of... ," Naris replied. She looked uncomfortable with the word. I didn't get anything from it, but I wasn't going to ask her to repeat it either.

"Shadow," I whispered. Good enough if in Caryn's mind I was the son of Moon and Fire. From the equipment, Shadow treated his brat better than my parents treated me. I snickered; Caryn did stab the fucker, so I couldn't complain about my equipment.

"Are we safe?" Naris asked.

"No," I replied. "Gamen. Winik."

They were standing to the side.

"In the tree and in that one," I ordered, pointing. Following Robert, I noticed he didn't look up. He wasn't a hunter who considered he might be prey. I'd been in too many places where it was someone else's job to kill me to think like that.

Whatever! His weakness was something I could exploit. Gamen and Winik understood their options. Take him from behind if they had to slow him down, but their best shot was to let him pass and use a different, quicker path to the cave.

In Robert's situation, I would have walked away. He was tribe-less, putting me at a huge advantage. He might not like Caryn or me, but there was no point in coming at us. From Reia's stories and my own experience, he could easily join another tribe and become Leader quickly. The smart thing to do was for Robert to let it go and walk away.

Just like the smart thing was for me to have killed him.

Killing Robert would certainly have been easier than spending such a long time on edge. To be honest, cave life is boring. Get up, exercise, go kill something if I wanted a break from mammoth meat, and back to bed. If it wasn't for the expectation that I would nail every woman in sight as often as possible, I might have gone stir crazy.

The fuck-all-women thing easily made up for not having TV, a game console, movie theaters, malls, and pretty much every other luxury item I could think of. After awhile, one might expect I'd get bored of all the sex. Hmm, no! I learned pretty quickly the whole 'pussy is all the same' is a load of bullshit pushed on us by guys getting a whole lot of different pussy. Fucking Wena and Aris. The same? I call 'Bullshit'! Twice!

However boring the other parts of living in The Land Of Every Woman Needs My Cock, I could have done without the expectation of attack, as could the rest of the tribe. The tension would have gone on for much longer if there wasn't some unfinished female business, namely Li's Wedding.

Leh didn't take offense to me referring to the eminent end of his bachelorhood by calling it Li's Wedding, Li's Mating, Li's Nuptials, Li's, Li's, Li's. Even in cave times, it seemed the day was all about the female of the species.

The A-Three decided I'd kept the young lady waiting long enough and announced we needed an appropriate kill for Li's Feast. I remembered spotting a moose-looking animal on the plateau during my last patrol. Having a decent feast candidate in mind, I concentrated on Reia licking my balls while Aris's hands stroked my cock. The entire female population was in the grass clearing for Morning Ritual. My loads were prodigious, but they couldn't all get a fair share with one cum. I expected to be in for a long, wonderful morning of being sold on whatever the A-Three wanted.

"Li will come to your furs tomorrow night," Naris told me.

"What for?" I asked without opening my eyes. Reia's tongue was dancing! Dancing! Dancing! Dance the morning away! I should tell Naris to shut up for a few minutes and let a dancer dance!

"To give you her blood, Leader." Every woman's mouth joined the chorus of those words. Hey! Hey! I still hear music, Reia!

"She will be mated to Leh afterwards," Naris said. Reia's tongue got back to its Gods assigned duty.

Here is the dangerous thing about intelligent, attractive women willing to use sex as a weapon: they're willing to use sex as a weapon. I would have argued the point of taking Li's virginity again (At least, I think I argued it before), but Naris didn't take the chance. The tongue of every female Anue jumped into the fray. It was a vicious beating! I swung my bat to and fro for all I was worth, but there were too many. Eventually, they dragged me down. Keeping me on the ground by the weight of their bodies, they licked every inch of my body. Multiple times! The torture ended with Li sucking the head of my dick as I came.

Really, I mean, I let the girl suck me off! Played with her virginal pussy. Gave it a few licks. Fucking her wasn't selfish. It was for her benefit. Naris said so! Tomorrow night, I'm going to plant my flag in virgin. Fucking awesome!

I couldn't get the thought of fucking Li out of my head as I hunted the moose. Leh, the Gay Duo, and Beo were with me. I needed to pay attention or not only would Leh be faced with the ignominy of the Leader taking his mate's virginity, but he'd have brought down the feast animal for the happy event too. God, the idiot would probably think it was 'Fucking awesome!' if he did. Then again, having a guy, whose chick's ass you are going to be first to wax at your back with a spear is not the best idea.

"Leh," I said. "You should have the honor."

I had caught sight of the moose-type animal. I don't know what the fuck a real moose looks like. Chubby antlers, walks on four legs, too big to be a deer, and looks Bullwinkle. The thing looked moose-ish to me.

Leh's eyes widened. He grabbed his spears tightly and nodded to let me know he would not fail me. I'm going to fuck your girl, dude. Feel free to miss with those spears for the next few days! The part about not having TV wasn't completely true. I did have access to the Watch Cave Dudes Hunt Channel. They played a lot of comedies.

The guys weren't tragic. It only took three passes of Beo chasing the moose at them before Leh got a spear in. I gave Gamen and Winik a hard look.

"You don't have to kill it, but slow it down for him," I told them. It was pretty clear they were holding back. Mr. Moosey was wounded and willing to ignore Beo to get away. I sighed before following the men. At least, they'd learned enough not to take chances. They set a pace to run the moose to ground before they went at it with spears again.

Hey guys, how about chasing it back towards the cave before you kill it? Less distance to carry the meat, know what I mean. Fuck me! I'm going to have to remember to always bring the cart for big hunts. My bad! But you fuckers are still carrying the lion's share back. I hate walking!

Finally, we got back to the Anue Cave. I did end up carrying the biggest portion though. I was stronger than the other guys and with far more stamina. Li about popped a gasket at the size of our catch for her mating feast.

I quickly took the A-Three and Li aside to negotiate the Feast Kill doing double duty as Li's first honor mate fucking kill too. My girls weren't pleased until I called Gamen and Winik over to bear witness that Leh brought the moose down. I had to agree to Li getting the moose skin (fur?), bones, and antlers before I could get everyone to sign-off. I didn't need the stuff so I was game. I decided not to push my luck and go for Li's blood ceremony also being her honor mate fucking when Naris's lips turned white. Oh well! So I'd have to take Li's virginity and then make a big hoodaadd about fucking her after she was mated. I could live with it. Not like I didn't plan to keep fucking her anyway. When in Cave Land, fuck all the cave women!

It was a trap! Fuck the virgin so she can be mated. It sounded simple, even on the up and up. I should have known to read the fine print with the A-Three on the opposing legal team.

All things considered though, the fuck-the-virgin part went smoothly.

The women spent a good part of the evening praising Leh's hunting ability in taking down the moose. Aris's behavior towards him caught my attention. She seemed a mite frisky. I guess the unmated women had a few tricks up their sleeve to let a cave man know she felt particularly accommodating. I would have pouted at never having been at the receiving end of that type of attention, except it would have been petty considering Aris's ass accommodated my dick the day before. Quite nicely too! Aris grunted cutely as the head of my dick pushed through her anal ring and...

Lucky for Li, praising Leh and giving me massive wood wasn't the only thing on the agenda. The women took apart the moose, really fucking disgusting work in my opinion. They got the moose meat ready for the feast and sat around whispering to each other. Leh got Aris's telegram and pulled her to the unmated women area for a little accommodating. Leh must have learned more than a better way to hunt from me--it sounded like Aris enjoyed the sex.

I thought the same rules as mated woman's first honoring would apply; namely, no nookie for Leader. That was the good part of the small print I missed. The A-Three surrounded Ula and Wena. God, I love Cave Life! Watching Naris, Els, and Caryn strip the two women was the highlight of the evening--so far. Ula and Wena were led over to me. The girls let me stare at the bounty of offered womanhood to my heart's content. Maybe this was a new torture during my enforced celibacy before taking the virgin. Ula's hands were incredibly soft. She reached into my loincloth and held my hard cock. Wena caressed my chest and stomach before undoing the loincloth so Ula could bring her other hand into play.